48 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



who has tried to learn carpentry will admit. To throw a stone 

 with as true an aim as a Fuegian in defending himself, or in kill- 

 ing birds, requires the most consummate perfection In the cor- 

 related action of the muscles of the hand, arm, and shoulder, and, 

 further, a fine sense of touch. In throwing a stone or spear, and 

 in many other actions, a man must stand firmly on his feet, and 

 this again demands the perfect co-adaptation of numerous mus- 

 cles. To chip a flint into the rudest tool, or to form a barbed spear 

 or hook from a bone, demands the use of a perfect hand; for, as 

 a most capable judge, Mr. Schoolcraft,™ remarks, the shaping frag- 

 ments of stone into knives, lances, or arrow-heads, shows "ex- 

 traordinary ability and long practice." This is to a great extent 

 proved by the fact that primeval men practiced a division of labor; 

 each man did not manufacture his own flint tools or rude poLtery, 

 but certain individuals appear to have devoted themselves to such 

 work, no doubt receiving in exchange the produce of the chase. 

 Archaeologists are convinced that an enormous interval of time 

 elapsed before our ancestors thought of grinding chipped flints 

 into smooth tools. One can hardly doubt, that a man-like animal 

 who possessed a hand and arm sufficiently perfect to throw a stone 

 with precision, or to form a flint into a rude tool, could, with suf- 

 ficient practice, as far as mechanical skill alone is concerned, 

 make almost anything which a civilized man can make. The 

 structure of the hand in this respect may be compared with that of 

 the vocal organs, which in the apes are used for uttering various 

 sigual-cries, or, as in one genus, musical cadences; but in man the 

 closely similar vocal organs have become adapted through the in- 

 herited effects of use for the utterance of articulate language. 



Turning now to the nearest allies of men, and therefore to the 

 best representatives of our early progenitors, we find that the 

 hands of the Quadrumana are constructed on the same general 

 pattern as our own, but are far less perfectly adapted for diver- 

 sified uses. Their hands do not serve for locomotion so well as 

 the feet of a dog; as may be seen in such monkeys as the chim- 

 panzee and orang, which walk on the outer margins of the palms, 

 or on the knuckles."" Their hands, however, are admirably adapt- 

 ed for climbing trees. Monkeys seize thin branches or ropes, 

 with the thumb on one side and the fingers and palm on the other, 

 in the same manner as we do. They can thus also lift rather large 

 objects, such as the neck of a bottle to their mouths. Baboons 

 turn over stones, and scratch up roots with their hands. They 

 seize nuts, insects, or other small objects with the thumb in oppo- 



"8 Quoted by Mr. Lawson Tait in his 'Law of Natural Selection '- 

 'Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science,' Feb. 1869. Dr. Keller 

 is likewise quoted to the same effect. 



" Owen. 'Anatomy of Vertebrates,' vol. iii. p. 71. 



